Photo: Tamir Lederberg
I was told I chop wood like a ballet dancer is a body of work that has grown as a collective effort. Following the origin of the word concert – to contest, question, dispute (with) as well as agreement in action – the iteration of IwtIcwlabd at District is a concert in the forms of a performance and an installation.
Acting in concert together, three figures chopping wood and five figures playing the electric bass make sound with the space, for what and who is in it. The space answers with lights fading into night, with colours, porosities, translucency, movements in fabrics and textures and places for the bodies to rest, to listen, to feel and imagine. Alluring for responses through murmurs and silences, with heartbeats, pleasure, alienation, repulsion maybe, with ways of doing time and dreaming.
IwtIcwlabd has been shaped by public workshops at District in summer 2017 and through sessions with a group of bass players.
On bass
Cash Hauke, Freja Bäckman, Mitchelle Betancourt, Verónica Mota, Wassan Ali
Chopping wood
Hanna Maria Bergfors, Henna Räsänen, Winnie Olbrich
Costumes
Corinna Helenelund, Liisa Pesonen
Sound
Lola Tseytlin / Sound Systers
Lights Support
Wassan Ali
District Team
Andrea C. Keppler (Production and Curatorial Associate), Anka Mirkin & Ryan Mason-Bevan (Technical support), Emma Haugh (Night Sweats), Johanna Ekenhorst (Communication), Nino Halka (Knowledges), Shanika Perera (Curatorial Assistance), Suza Husse (Artistic Director)
Photo: Tamir Lederberg
A project by Freja Bäckman at District Berlin. Kindly supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, Kone Foundation, BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts and Cine Plus.
frejabackman.wordpress.com 